International organizations come in many shapes and sizes. Within this institutional gamut, the multipurpose multilateral intergovernmental organization (MMIGO) plays a central role. This institutional form is often traced to the creation of the League of Nations, but in fact the first MMIGO emerged in the Western Hemisphere at the close of the nineteenth century. Originally modeled on a single-issue European public international union, the Commercial Bureau of the American Republics evolved into the multipurpose, multilateral Pan American Union (PAU). Contrary to prominent explanations of institutional genesis, the PAU's design did not result from functional needs nor from the blueprints of a hegemonic power. Advancing a recent synthesis between historical and rational institutionalism, we argue that the first MMIGO arose through a process of compensatory layering: a mechanism whereby a sequence of bargains over control and scope leads to gradual but transformative institutional change. We expect compensatory layering to occur when an organization is focal, power asymmetries among members of that organization are large, and preferences over institutional design diverge. Our empirical and theoretical contributions demonstrate the value a more global international relations (IR) perspective can bring to the study of institutional design. international relations (IR) scholars have long noted that international organizations provide smaller states with voice opportunities; our account suggests those spaces may be of smaller states’ own making.

In this article I explain a nexus between slavery and state formation in Africa, proceeding from initial demographic and institutional conditions to an external demand shift, individual state responses, and their collective systemic consequences. Historically, African rulers faced distinctive challenges: low population density prioritized control of people more than territory, and internal disintegration was often a greater threat than external conquest. A massive expansion in the demand for slaves offered African rulers increased opportunities to use external resources for “outside-in” state building. Many did so by creating highly militarized predatory slaving states. The collective consequence was heightened systemic insecurity. Variation in the timing of these developments reflected regional and historical variation in the expansion of the demand for slaves. Slaving states appeared first in West Africa, reflecting the late-seventeenth-century expansion of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, before spreading to East Africa a century later, following the parallel later increase in the Indian Ocean slave trade. This “outside-in” path to state formation both parallels and contrasts with contemporary postcolonial state formation.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the perspectives which govern the opinions of French leaders toward the United Nations. Having identified these perspectives, we shall seek to characterize the differences between them in terms of their motivation, content, and outcome. Our objective is to qualify conventional stereotypes that have been more repeated than investigated, such as that “the French” are hostile to the UN because they are “nationalists”. While traditional nationalism is still a powerful political emotion in France, it is expressed in various ways among contemporary Frenchmen. The varieties of French nationalism today include—and the paradox is more apparent than real—both commitments to internationalism and loyalties to supranationalism.

The tenth session of the Council of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) was held in Geneva, April 7–10, 1959. Ambassador Alberto Berio, chief of the permanent delegation of Italy to the European Office of the UN, was elected to succeed Ambassador H. de Souza-Gomes (Brazil) as Council Chairman, following which Mr. A. Yerocostopoulos, chief of the Greek delegation, asked immigration countries to increase the numbers of Greek workers admitted as migrants. Citing the facts that his country had the highest net annual birth rate in Europe and that the Greek economy could absorb barely half the 50,000 new workers entering the labor market each year, he expressed the hope that the level of ICEM-assisted migrants might be raised and maintained at 10,000 per year, that is, almost double the current intake.

This article presents briefly the findings of a case study in which two questions are investigated:

a) Did the idea of an International Finance Corporation, first publicly expounded by the United States International Development Advisory Board, have its source in a United States agency or in an international organization?

b) What were the causes of the modification of policy announced by the United States government on November II, 1954, when it decided to support the establishment of the International Finance Corporation, and did international organizations have any part in bringing about this change of policy?

The Security Council at its 990th meeting discussed briefly the India-Pakistan question, which had once again been brought to its attention in letters from the representatives of India and Pakistan on the situation prevailing with regard to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The repre-sentative of Pakistan had charged in the initial complaint that since efforts for direct negotiation had failed, there was a grave danger to the maintenance of peace in the Kashmir region. Following a presentation of the question by Chaudhri Zafrulla Khan (Pakistan), the Indian delegate, Mr. Jha, asked the Council to postpone considera-tion of the issue until after the general elections in India so that the new govern-ment formed after the elections could fully participate in the discussion.

Provisional Organ of Consultation: The Organization of American States (OAS) Council met on April 28, 1963, acting as the Provisional Organ of Consultation under the terms of Article 6 of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio Treaty), to discuss the tense situation existing between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The immediate cause of the situation was cited as the alleged Haitian violations of the premises of the Dominican Embassy in Port-au-Prince. These violations were denied by the government of Haiti. The Provisional Organ of Consultation authorized the Chairman to appoint a five-man fact-finding committee to visit the scene and submit a report. It also resolved to request the two governments involved to guarantee fully that they would abstain from taking any act susceptible of aggravating the situation between them or that might breach the international peace.

In 1952 the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace initiated a series of national studies on international organization which were to be carried out by private groups and individuals in more than twenty countries. They were to provide an appraisal of the national experience of these countries in international organizations, especially the United Nations, ten years after the San Francisco conference. Fourteen volumes in the series have now been published. Three more will be published soon, including the two final volumes which summarize and discuss the conclusions of the individual studies. These two works have been written, respectively, by Maurice Bourquin, Professor of International Public Law at the University of Geneva, and by Robert MacIver, Lieber Professor Emeritus of Political Philosophy and Sociology at Columbia University. Other national studies have been completed and were available to Professors Bourquin and MacIver, but they have not been published yet; this reviewer has not seen them and will therefore limit his own remarks to the reports which have been or are soon to be published. I will examine first the questions which the national studies were supposed to answer and the way in which the various authors have tried to answer them; then I will present some general comments about the national attitudes toward international organization, as they emerge from the series; finally I will discuss the role of the UN in present world politics, as it can be interpreted on the basis of the national reports.

The European Parliamentary Assembly met in ordinary session from October 21 to 24, 1958, at the House of Europe in Strasbourg. After M. Robert Schuman, President of the Assembly, had opened the proceedings, statements were made on the activities of the European Economic Community (EEC or common market) during the first nine months of its existence and on the activities of the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). In regard to the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the Assembly heard a statement by M. Pierre Wigny, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Belgium, in which he noted the present coal crisis in Europe, and the differences between the common market and the free trade area—the one aiming for progressive integration, the other only for facilitating trade. This speaker was followed by M. Paul Finet, President of the High Authority of ECSC, who set out the present situation concerning coal in the common market area. He stated that the situation was undeniably serious and pointed out that pithead stocks had more than trebled, rising from 7 million metric tons in 1957 to 22 million tons in 1958. Belgium and Germany had been particularly hard-hit. He reviewed the action taken by the High Authority in trying to make the marketing rules more flexible and to stabilize production and imports, and appealed to the Parliament for support in these proposals, which had been made to the Council of Ministers of ECSC. A debate ensued on the general subject of the European communities.

On July 20, 1961, Kuwait was admitted to membership in the Arab League as an independent Arab state. Earlier the Iraqi delegates had walked out, alleging that the League was joining with British imperialism. Kuwait was the eleventh state to join the League. The League Council unanimously approved a three-point resolution: 1) the Kuwait government would undertake to request the withdrawal of British troops as soon as possible, and the Iraqi government would undertake not to resort to force; 2) the League would support any wish expressed by Kuwait for unity or union with other League member states, and the League welcomed Kuwait as a member and supported its application for membership in the UN; and 3) the Arab countries undertook to offer effective help to Kuwait to safeguard its independence. An Arab League military mission, led by Lieutenant-General Ahmed Halim Imam, arrived in Kuwait on August 7, 1961; it included representatives of Jordan, Lebanon, the United Arab Republic, and the Arab League secretariat. It was also accompanied by Abdel-Azia Husain, who had represented Kuwait at the recent Arab League meetings and was expected to be Kuwait's first ambassador in Cairo. The mission was the outcome of the July 20 decision of the League to give Kuwait all effective aid necessary to preserve its independence on condition that it asked for the withdrawal of British troops. On August 13, the paper work necessary to bring Kuwait under the protection of the Arab League and enable the British forces then in Kuwait to leave was completed.

The Annual Report of the Executive Directors of the International Monetary Fund for the fiscal year ended April 30, 1958, was transmitted to the Chairman of the Board of Governors on July 25, 1958. In its discussion of the economic climate of 1957–1958, the report noted that at the beginning of 1957, the world economy was still dominated by boom conditions generated by an intense world-wide wave of private and public investment which was reflected in a large demand for capital. Most of the payments problems that called for treatment during the first three-quarters of the year had their origin in the inflationary methods which were often used to satisfy this demand, and there was a dearth of loanable funds and a growing tension in the money markets. The financial problems that presented themselves in this situation were greatly intensified early in 1957 by the temporary effects of the tensions that arose in connection with the Suez events and, later in the year, by speculative movements against certain European currencies.

The fourteenth annual report of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, covering the fiscal year July 1, 1958, to June 30, 1959, was presented to the Board of Governors on September 28, 1959. The report noted that the year under review had been one of considerable adversity for many of the Bank's member countries, with foreign exchange difficulties having been the rule rather than the exception for the less developed nations. Nevertheless, although export earnings had declined, the inflow of both public and private capital from the developed areas had been well maintained. The Bank's lending for the period under review had continued at the high level reached in the previous fiscal year, as it had made 30 loans totaling $703 million. Half of the year's lending activities had been concentrated in Asia, amounting to $354 million, while the balance had been made up of $136.5 million for Latin America, $110.6 million for Africa, and $102 million for Europe. As in previous years, lending operations had emphasized the strengthening of basic services, with electric power development representing the largest objective and accounting for $294 million of the total. Transportation improvement, mainly in railways, had accounted for $257.2 million; loans for industry, largely steel, paper, and mining, had totaled $149 million; and loans for agricultural development had amounted to $3.5 million.

Case concerning the Aerial Incident of July 2J, 1955 (United States v. Bulgaria): In an order of October 8, 1958, the Court, in accordance with a request from the agent for the government of Bulgaria, extended the time limit for the filing of the counter-memorial of the government of Bulgaria to September 9, 1959.

The 27th session of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), comprising the 1048th to the 1066th meetings, was held in Mexico City from April 7 through April 24, 1959. Mr. Cosío Villegas (Mexico) was elected President for 1959 at the opening meeting, while Mr. Michalowski (Poland) and Mr. Zahiruddin Ahmed (Pakistan) were elected First and Second Vice-Presidents, respectively.

The predictive power of the social sciences is poor. That of the science of international relations is particularly mediocre, since it deals with a type of social action—the conduct of foreign policy—that is pervaded by uncertainty and in which even the most carefully calculated actions partake of gambling. Therefore, to try to forecast the chances of “international military force” in general during the years to come would be an exercise in futility. There are, however, two tasks which a political scientist can begin to perform. One consists of making the necessary distinctions; they may appear tiresome to the general reader and trifling to the impatient reformer, but both those gentlemen ought to remember that the opposite of distinctions is confusion. The second task consists of examining what kinds of international forces appear to be compatible with the international system in which we live.

The first part of the tenth session of the Consultative Assembly was held April 28—May 3, 1958, under the presidency of Mr. Fernand Dehousse.

The seventh joint meeting of the members of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe and of the European Parliamentary Assembly of the European Communities was held on June 24 and 25, 1960, in the House of Europe at Strasbourg, with the Presidents of the two Assemblies presiding alternately over the sittings.

The twentieth session of the Contracting Parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was held at Geneva from October 23 to November 16, 1962. The Contracting Parties decided to convene a ministerial meeting in the early part of 1963 to consider a program for effective liberalization and expansion of trade in both primary and secondary products. In this connection, full weight would be attached to the importance and urgency of negotiating solutions to the problems of trade in primary products and to the additional trade problems of less developed countries. The proposal that such a meeting should be held was made jointly by the governments of the United States and Canada.